Sony has announced its latest flagship phone, which as the numerous rumors over the last couple of weeks have predicted, is called the Xperia 1 VII. It succeeds the Xperia 1 VI that launched in May 2024 and it incorporates technologies from Sony’s Alpha cameras, Walkman audio players, and the company’s BRAVIA televisions, integrating these features through ‘Xperia Intelligence’ for enhanced camera, audio, and viewing experiences.
As has been the case for several years with Sony phones, the focus of the Xperia 1 VII continues to be its camera capabilities and while there have only been some slight adjustments to the camera lenses themselves, new software tricks have been introduced for 2025.
The seventh iteration of the Xperia 1 comes with ‘AI Camerawork’ and ‘Auto Framing’ functions as its feature highlights. The former – ‘AI Camera Work’ – is designed to allow you to capture stable and well-composed videos even without continuous monitoring of the shooting screen. It maintains a centred subject in the frame by utilizing image stabilization and posture estimation.
‘Auto Framing’ meanwhile, uses AI to track and automatically crop your shot to keep the subject central, offering both a full scene and a close-up view simultaneously, with two videos saved to the device when using this feature.
What specs does the Sony Xperia 1 VII have?
In terms of camera setup, the Xperia 1 VII has triple rear lenses, including a new 16mm ultra wide lens with a 48MP 1/1.56-inch sensor that’s claimed to be 2.1x larger than the ultra wide lens on the Xperia 1 VI. This larger sensor is intended to improve low-light performance and reduce noise, and it also supports macro photography from around 5cm. The main 48-megapixel wide-angle lens offers 24mm/48mm equivalents for 2x optical zoom, while the 12-megapixel telephoto lens provides an 85mm to 170mm optical zoom range.
The Xperia 1 VII also incorporates circuit design and components from Sony’s Walkman devices to enhance wired headphone sound quality, while ‘DSEE Ultimate’ technology uses AI to improve the quality of compressed streaming audio for both wired and wireless connections. The phone’s full-stage stereo speakers have also been improved for clearer sound across frequencies.
There’s a 6.5-inch OLED display on board the Xperia 1 VII, which features a 19.5:9 aspect ratio Full HD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The display’s specs are similar to the Xperia 1 VI but there is now has an additional light sensor to optimize brightness and colour based on the viewing environment. It is designed to improve visibility in various lighting conditions, while an enhanced peak brightness and ‘Sunlight Vision’ have been introduced for help with using this phone outdoors in direct sunlight. Unlike the likes of Samsung, Apple and OnePlus however, Sony doesn’t detail the brightness in nits so it’s not clear how it compares.
Under the hood, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset runs the Xperia 1 VII, supported by 12GB of RAM. There is a 5,000mAh battery on board too, with Sony claiming it will offer 36 hours of continuous video playback and 50 per cent charge in 30 minutes.
The Xperia 1 VII will be available for order from May 13 in Slate Black, Moss Green, and Orchid Purple from Sony and select retailers. It will be priced around €1499 in Europe and £1399 in the UK. US pricing and availability has yet to be announced so it’s not currently clear if it will come to the US at all.
The Xperia 1 VII will support four OS upgrades and six years of security updates, which is quite a few years less than Google and Samsung, but one year more than Motorola.